The Shape of Water

Title: The Shape of Water
Author: Andrea Camilleri
Published: May 31, 2005 by Penguin Books
Format: Hardcover, 218 Pages
Genre: Police Procedural
Series: Commissario Montalbano #1

Blurb: The Shape of Water is the first in Andrea Camilleri's wry, brilliantly compelling Sicilian crime series, featuring Inspector Montalbano.

The goats of Vigàta once grazed on the trash-strewn site still known as the Pasture. Now local enterprise of a different sort flourishes: drug dealers and prostitutes of every flavour. But their discreet trade is upset when two employees of the Splendour Refuse Collection Company discover the body of engineer Silvio Luparello, one of the local movers and shakers, apparently deceased in flagrante at the Pasture. The coroner's verdict is death from natural causes - refreshingly unusual for Sicily.

But Inspector Salvo Montalbano, as honest as he is streetwise and as scathing to fools and villains as he is compassionate to their victims, is not ready to close the case - even though he's being pressured by Vigàta's police chief, judge, and bishop.

Picking his way through a labyrinth of high-comedy corruption, delicious meals, vendetta firepower, and carefully planted false clues, Montalbano can be relied on, whatever the cost, to get to the heart of the matter.

My Opinion: I’d decided my poor, neglected shelf of older books deserved some attention, so I reached for The Shape of Water. In hindsight… I probably should’ve let that shelf continue gathering dust. I blame the cover entirely. That blue ocean? It whispered vacation promises it absolutely did not keep.

Published in 2005, the book shows its age in ways that aren’t charming. The language used to describe women made me wince more than once. And because it’s short, you’d think it would at least move briskly. It does not. This is the first in a 28 book series, and honestly, I cannot fathom how anyone made it to book two, let alone book twenty eight.

We follow Salvo Montalbano, Vigàta’s most respected detective, as he’s called in to investigate the death of a prominent citizen. On paper, that sounds promising. In practice, the story starts slow and then stays that way. There’s humor, some bumbling characters, a bit of moral corner cutting “for the greater good,” and flashes of personality that hint at why the series has fans. But for me, it all blended into a kind of monotone hum which was never a DNF, just relentlessly meh.

By the halfway point, I found myself more invested in the fact that I was clearing another long ignored book from my shelf than in the mystery itself. And that’s never a great sign.

Will I be continuing with the series? Absolutely not. But I will give myself credit for finally reading it and freeing up that little square of shelf space. Sometimes the victory is simply finishing the thing.

My Husband's Wife

Title: My Husband's Wife
Author: Alice Feeney
Published: January 20, 2026 by Flatiron Books: Pine & Cedar
Format: Hardcover, 310 Pages
Genre: Psychological Thriller

Blurb: Eden Fox, an artist on the brink of her big break, sets off for a run before her first exhibition. When she returns to the home she recently moved into—Spyglass, an enchanting old house in Hope Falls—nothing is as it should be. Her key doesn't fit. A woman, eerily similar to her, answers the door. And her husband insists that this stranger is his wife. One house. One husband. Two women. Someone is lying. Six months earlier, a reclusive Londoner named Birdy, reeling from a life-changing diagnosis, inherits Spyglass. This unexpected gift from a long-lost grandmother brings her to the pretty seaside village of Hope Falls. But then Birdy stumbles upon a shadowy London clinic that claims to be able to predict a person's date of death, including her own.

My Opinion: My Husband’s Wife was my first Alice Feeney, so I went in with that cautious curiosity you get when you’re testing out a new thriller author. Only a few pages, I told myself, to see if her style was for me. Famous last words. Within a handful of chapters, I thought I had a decent grasp on what was happening. By chapter twenty, I was staring at the page thinking: Nope. Absolutely not. None of this connects. I am lost in the best, most chaotic way.

This book is a fast, twisty, deceptively easy read. The kind that grabs hold of a brain like mine, the kind that loves lining up puzzle pieces and connecting dots. Except Feeney keeps snatching the pieces back and swapping them out when you’re not looking. A third of the way through, I realized I wasn’t just reading a psychological thriller; I was in the middle of a full blown narrative labyrinth. The beginning already had me pausing to think, to rearrange theories, to mutter “Wait, what?” under my breath—but by that point, I knew I was strapped in for a ride.

And the questions. Oh, the questions.

Who is really the wife?

Who is the artist?

Where does the daughter fit into all of this?

Why does every answer feel like it’s lying to me?

The husband, well, he’s a whole situation. His big revelation was another twist in a book already full of them. And just when you think you’ve found someone you can trust, the police officer starts acting suspicious, and the new detective feels like she’s hiding something too. It’s like Feeney looked at the concept of “reliable characters” and said, “Absolutely not.”

Then you reach the end; the reader is hit with one final tailspin. The kind that makes you sit there blinking at the wall, replaying the entire book in your head, trying to figure out what you missed and how she managed to outmaneuver you, yet again.

To say I loved every moment feels like an understatement. I picked this up intending to sample a few pages, maybe decide whether Alice Feeney was an author I’d continue with. Instead, I found myself glued to the book, thinking about it even when I wasn’t reading, trying to decode what she was really telling me. And when I finally finished, I realized I hadn’t written down half the thoughts I meant to, and all I could do was sit there, stunned, trying to process the beautiful chaos I’d just experienced.

If this is what Alice Feeney does, then yes, she’s absolutely for me.

The Antiquarian's Object of Desire

Title: The Antiquarian's Object of Desire
Author: India Holton
Published: April 21, 2026 by Berkley
Format: Kindle, Paperback 368 Pages
Genre: Fantasy
Series: Love's Academic (#3)

Blurb: Magical-antique experts Amelia Tarrant and Caleb Sterling have been best friends forever, although lately each has begun secretly wishing for more than friendship. But when rumors about their relationship spread, they're forced to fake being enemies to protect their reputations and keep their jobs.

The resulting arguments spark havoc across Oxford University, and when they cause an explosion while fighting over a magical antique, it’s the final straw for their exasperated faculty head. He dispatches them to a job in Cumbria where even they can’t get into trouble.

Which proves just how wrong one man can be. In a stormbound old manor house, Amelia and Caleb face magical mayhem and rampaging ghosts that make the previous havoc look mild in comparison. Most troublesome of all, though, is the secret of how they feel about each other. When it comes to tackling deadly antiques, hiding the truth in their hearts could destroy them for real.

My Opinion: From the very first chapter, this novel sets the stage for fun with laugh-out-loud moments, in addition to a few unexpectedly tender moments that catch you off guard. It’s part of the charm. Holton herself calls this book a “fantasy rom com” starring characters who have apparently been loitering in the back of her imagination for years. And honestly? You can feel that. These two have been patiently waiting to get onto the page.

At the center of the story is one of my favorite tropes: fake hating. Not enemies to lovers, not rivals; no, these are two best friends who have to pretend to despise each other for the sake of academic survival. Dr. Amelia Tarrant, antiquarian and Oxford history professor, is fighting to keep her job. Dr. Caleb Sterling, her equally brilliant counterpart, is fighting the urge to leap to her defense every time a roomful of men calls her a tyrant. (He would like to file a complaint with HR on her behalf, preferably while holding her hand.)

Unfortunately for them, the Oxford faculty has grown weary of their constant bickering- real or otherwise- and exiles them to a remote, crumbling manor house. This is where things get complicated. The house is full of magical antiquities that react to the pair’s… let’s call it “chemistry.” Ghosts rampage. Objects misbehave. Spoons develop opinions. And every time Amelia and Caleb try to maintain their façade of mutual disdain, the universe (and one very chaotic utensil) seems determined to expose the truth.

Holton blends magic into a historical setting with the same ease she blends humor with longing. One minute you’re laughing at a possessed household item; the next you’re swept up in Amelia’s fierce determination to protect what’s hers -- her career, her research, her sense of self. And layered over all of that is a mystery involving a thief, a college in peril, and the kind of banter that makes you want to highlight entire pages.

I adored the first book in this series (The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love). The second one (The Geographer’s Map to Romance) didn’t quite hit the same high for me. But this one? This one brings back the spark, the charm, and the irresistible pull of the first. Even though the books are technically part of a series, they read more like interconnected standalones with each adding its own flavor, its own magic, and its own beating heart.

The only sad part? This appears to be the final book in the series. And while the ending is satisfying, I’m still a little bereft knowing we won’t get another round of magical academia, misbehaving artifacts, and Holton’s signature blend of wit and whimsy.

Theo of Golden

Title: Theo of Golden
Author: Allen Levi
Published: October 3, 2025 by Atria Books
Format: Paperback, 387 Pages
Genre: Fiction

Blurb: One spring morning, a stranger arrives in the small southern city of Golden. No one knows where he has come from…or why.

His name is Theo. And he asks a lot more questions than he answers.

Theo visits the local coffeehouse, where ninety-two pencil portraits hang on the walls, portraits of the people of Golden done by a local artist. He begins purchasing them, one at a time, and putting them back in the hands of their “rightful owners.” With each exchange, a story is told, a friendship born, and a life altered.

A story of giving and receiving, of seeing and being seen, Theo of Golden is a beautifully crafted novel about the power of creative generosity, the importance of wonder to a purposeful life, and the invisible threads of kindness that bind us to one another.

My Opinion: I usually keep a wary distance from anything labeled a “must read.” It’s my reflexive flinch against books that feel forced by someone who doesn’t know me. But Theo of Golden didn’t come at me that way. It arrived at the right time, and before I realized it, I was completely folded into its world.

This book carries a quiet sweetness, the kind that doesn’t force itself on you, but slowly fills the room. Still, every few chapters I found myself pausing, not out of overwhelm exactly, but because the emotions asked to be held for a moment. There’s a tenderness in the way the stories loop back on themselves, each one brushing against another like a nod of recognition. Nothing is rushed. Nothing is forced. It’s simply people telling their human stories and Theo, a steady, patient man, making space for them to be heard.

Ellen is the one who will stay with me the longest. There’s something about her fragility, her exhaustion, that felt so real I had to set the book down when she was asked her favorite color. Such a small question, such a shattering answer. And Kendrick, dear Kendrick, who knows the ache of being unseen so intimately that he gently teaches someone else how to truly look at another person. His kindness is the sort that sneaks up on you and lays a lesson at your feet.

As for the ending, I lingered. I reread paragraphs. I pretended I wasn’t getting closer to goodbye. When it finally came, it was soft but heavy, like a sigh you’ve been holding for a long time. Many tears, too, because how could there not be?

Very few books manage to be both gentle and deeply affecting, but this one does. One day, when my heart feels a little stronger, I’ll return to Theo and the people of Golden. There’s a warmth there, a sense of belonging and quiet understanding, that feels like being welcomed back into a room where you were missed.